May 21, 2017

[Sponsored] Lens review: GEO Crazy SF-75

Yoooooo!

Once again I'm back reviewing another pair of lenses sent to me by the amazing Sweden-based circle lens shop called CirclelensesEurope, also known as Cirkellinser. ^_^ I've done a couple reviews for them earlier so, in case you're curious and missed out, check them out here and here ~! 
This time around I'm reviewing a crazy lens the GEO Crazy SF-75! These lenses often have other names added to their number code name (SF-75), most commonly "Flame Eyes" or sometimes even "Vampire" but some people just call this kind of lens design for the Darth Maul eyes since they are often used by cosplayers for the iconic eyes of the Sith Lords from the Star Wars universe.

The lenses I'm reviewing in this post were kindly sponsored by CirclelensesEurope, aka Cirkellinser. Rest assured knowing that all my reviews are purely 100% my honest opinion. I don't ever compromise the truth.

The discount code "SHIRO" gives you 10% off on any order placed on both CircleLensesEurope and Cirkellinser – feel free to use it! ♥



Base curve: 8.6 mm
Diameter: 14.2 mm
Water content: 40±2
Life span: 1 year (I recommend 6 months)


Note: To all my Swedish readers, please scroll to the end of this post for a summary in Swedish. // Till alla mina svenska läsare, bläddra gärna till slutet av detta inlägg för en sammanfattning på svenska. :)


Before I start with the actual review of the lenses I want to tell you all a little about CirclelensesEurope, also known as Cirkellinser. You might wonder why I'm mentioning two stores but the catch is that it's actually the same store, just for two different markets – CirclelensesEurope is catering for the whole Europe while Cirkellinser is especially for the Swedes. Both sites have the same people behind it, the same products for sale, ship from the same place etc so yeah, the only difference is basically that the other one is for people living in Sweden. Neither of them is a copycat or a scam site so no worries there – you can buy from either of them with confidence!

Both of their sites are fresh, inviting, cute and easy to use. There is not a staggering amount of circle lenses to choose from since they seem to focus on just a couple lens brands – GEO and EOS, respectively. But what CirclelensesEurope lack in options they make up for with incredibly high-speed and cheap shipping – it's a flat price of 3€ for anywhere in Europe. The fast shipping puts CirclelensesEurope at an advantage over Asia-based lens stores because yeah, if you're a cosplayer and need lenses urgently (let's say, a week before the con) then they might very well save your costume!

Regarding the shipping and handling time I want to say that I've always received my orders extremely fast – most commonly already on the next working day. Shipping to Sweden is usually 1-2 days and to the rest of Europe it's 3-7 days and it also says on their site that they ship out within 24 hours.

If you wonder to what European countries (note: they do NOT ship outside of Europe!!) they ship to then this is what it says on their site:
We deliver to following countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom and Austria.
Their customer service is dependable; they seem to answer within 24 hours, even during weekends! Customer service is also really kind and easy to approach while still having that professional air to it. All in all CirclelensesEurope is a very easy and smooth shop to deal with, safe to buy from and I would warmly recommend them to all fellow European (and Swedish) cosplayers and circle lens fans! They are a really good store, honestly.


 ~***~ Lens review continues ~***~

The lenses arrived in a small regular white bubblewrap envelope that easily fits into your average mailbox. On the envelope was a cute little 3D smiley sticker.



Inside the white envelope the lenses are packed in a small cute drawstring bag! With the order also came a free lens case, a business card with a hand-written 'thank you' note on the back, a GEO Medical information sheet (because I received GEO lenses) and, of course, the shop's own leaflet with information about their guarantees, wear & care etc – a really good piece of advice for all the first-time contact lens users.

~***~

I put the lenses to soak in ordinary contact lens solution before wearing them – it's not recommended to wear circle lenses right out of their original vials/packaging! I have no problems inserting them and the lenses don't sting my eyes or such; I also don't feel them when I move my gaze around. One thing that they do though is blur my vision because of the small pupil hole, which also means that I see yellow corners in my vision field in any kind of poorer light conditions; it's nothing that you don't get used to and it's to be expected with any kind of crazy and animation lenses.

One lens in.
My natural eye color is a light blue-gray but I do have a faint golden-ish ring next to the pupil. As is to be expected by crazy lenses these completely cover up my real eye color! The color is really opaque, pigmented and vibrant. There's no shading or anything so the color looks really fake but hey, who buys crazy lenses expecting them to look natural? Like, really?

The design is just a solid yellow color with some irregular flaming edges that is a shade between orange and red; it makes you look like the bad guy from a science fiction movie and that's pretty boss. These lenses could also bring that little extra to any kind of werewolf, vampire, alien, dragon or even a possessed look for the next wild carneval party!
The size increase is quite modest – it's there but you don't really pay attention to it. I rarely buy crazy lenses for enlargement effect anyway, I buy them for the special effect.

Lens photos ahead!
All photos taken by me during a May afternoon with a clear sky.
There's no color filters or such on the close-up photos and that's so that the colors would be as true to real life as possible.


Apartment room light. Natural (window) light.
Apartment room light, standing in a dark corner.
Flash photo.
White light in the corridor.
Yellow light in the staircase.
Indoors storage room. Natural light from the side.
Basement floor. Poor natural light.
Outdoors, facing the sun while being in the shadow.
Outdoors, back against sun.
Outdoors, facing sun.
I instantly noticed that once I had both lenses in that they were of vastly different colors! One lens is several shades brighter while the other appears duller and more muddy in color, as well as a bit more transparent (insufficient color print?) and it's honestly impossible to miss. I'm suspecting that it's a manufacturing error – it could happen to any pair of lenses and I was just unlucky, in other words. Sith Shit happens. :'( I'm not gonna lie, of course it's disappointing because it looks dumb –and makes the lenses unusable for serious costuming purposes– but I really can't blame CircleLensesEurope; it's not their fault that manufacturer errors exist and, just to compare, I've gotten defective lenses from several big and popular Asian circle lens stores as well. 
Also, the color difference is not visible until the lens is in the eye – or at least I didn't notice anything in the vials, nor when I held the lenses on my finger; there's also no chance that I put them on the wrong way since it's really easy to tell the right side apart from the wrong side (because wrong side is considerably lighter). I also want to mention that I checked the batch numbers on the vials and both lenses are from the very same lot, surprisingly enough.

The comfort is mainly good but a bit unpredictable. The first time I wore these lenses I could easily wear them for 3,5 hours (I had to take them off for work after that) without feeling them anywhere – I know I could have worn them at least a couple hours more with no problems. The second time I wore these I experienced frequent dry bouts on and off and I had a hard time to wear them past the first hour because my eyes felt so dry, yet I still persisted for 4 hours before I gave up. I've had very dry eyes lately so take my comfort grading with a grain of salt because yeah, the first day I easily wore these for 3,5 hours while the second time I struggled after the first hour. I have dry and sensitive eyes naturally anyway, by the way. I'm pretty sure that if you don't suffer from the same eye problems that I do then these would surely be comfortable!
Also, in case someone wonders, I noticed no difference in comfort between the two lenses – despite the obvious color difference. So yeah, it's not defective as in unwearable, just a color mistake it seems.

Distance photos! Original Sith Lord style, of course.



Regarding CircleLensesEurope I need to mention that they and their Swedish counterpart sadly don't carry prescription lenses for the time being. I don't know if they plan to start selling those anytime soon but I keep my fingers crossed since a lot of people have vision defects, me included, and need prescription lenses to see. My own vision defects are minor enough (-0,50 on my weaker eye) that I can get around just fine with plano lenses but yeah, if you can't wear lenses without power I'm really sorry to say that, sadly, CircleLensesEurope doesn't have what you need. :'(

Remember, if you make a purchase at CircleLensesEurope or Cirkellinser you can get 10% off any order if you use the discount code "SHIRO" during checkout – enjoy! ♡

Short summary:

Color: 9/10 
Ignore the defect and it's an intense flat yellow color with a fiery flame rim. Not for the faint of heart.
Design: 7/10 
A simple solid lens with a flame design on the outer rim. Looks badass!
Opacity: 10/10
As is to be expected from a crazy lens – really good color coverage.
Enlargement: 4/10 
Modest enlargement. It's there but it's not all that noticeable, perhaps because of the eye-catching extreme design.
Comfort: 5/10 
Easy to wear (no stinginess etc) but a bit unpredictable on my dry eyes. Ranges from really comfortable to drying after a couple hours. Gives yellow corners in the vision field and occasional blurred sight in poorer light conditions.
Naturalness: 0/10 
Unless you turned to the dark side of the Force and your eyes suddenly changed then no, not really.


• Sammanfattning på svenska

Vad är cirkellinser? 

Cirkellinser är kosmetiska linser som till en början mest användes i Asien av idoler, modeller och liknande men som har, på sistone, blivit alltmer populära även i västvärlden – särskilt bland ungdomar som har ett intresse för japansk populärkultur. Det som skiljer cirkellinser från vanliga färgade linser är att dom kommer i otroligt många olika designs och färger (även onaturliga färger så som röd, rosa och lila etc) samt att dom får dina ögon att se större och vackrare ut! Cirkellinser finns att köpa både med och utan styrka. Det är flest unga kvinnor som använder cirkellinser men även män, transpersoner, ickebinära och andra har insett hur roligt det kan vara att byta ögonfärg lite nu och då för att testa på något nytt och spännande.

~~~~~~~~~

Cirkellinser är en svensk online-affär –förmodligen den första och enda i vårt avlånga land som säljer äkta "circle lenses", numera även kända på svenska som cirkellinser. Tyvärr så säljer inte Cirkellinser linser med styrka i dagens läge.

Denna gång valde jag att recensera ett linspar som heter GEO Crazy SF-75 (bilder finns ovanför!) då dem verkade riktigt balla med sin intensivt gula färg med flammor i kanterna. Linserna anlände inom nån enstaka arbetsdag i ett vadderat kuvert. I kuvertet fanns även ett visitkort med en handskriven hälsning på baksidan, ett gratis linsetui samt linserna själv som var förpackade i en fin liten snörpåse.

Linserna är superfräna, heltäckande och passar perfekt till att exempelvis cosplaya en Sithlord från Star Wars med de ikoniska ögonen – de syns på väldigt långt avstånd också! Dessa linser går även galant att komplettera looken med om man ska klä ut sig till vampyr, varulv och andra läskiga varelsermaskeradfesten!
Tyvärr hade jag otur och fick ett linspar med tydlig färgskillnad linserna, men detta är ett produktionsfel och sånt händer – det inte Cirkellinsers fel; jag har fått defekta linser även från de största cirkellinsbutikerna i Asien. 

Dessa linser har varierande bekvämlighet för mig; jag har haft riktigt torra ögon på sistone och första dagen jag testade dessa kunde jag lätt ha dem i flera timmar utan problem. Andra gången fick jag kämpa för att inte ge upp efter första timmen då dom kändes torra. Jag är dock rätt säker på att om du inte har torra och känsliga ögon som mig så är det säkert inget problem att bära dessa linser! De är lätta att sätta in, skaver och kliar inte – men däremot så gör dessa linser så att hörnen i mitt synfält blir gula och/eller suddiga, främst inomhus. Den blurriga effekten sker då linsernas pupillöppning är mindre än på din typiska icke-crazy cirkellins, vilket gör så att när du vistas i ett utrymme med sämre ljusförhållanden så blir din pupill naturligt större och "krockar" därmed med linsen. Man vänjer sig fort vid det dock.

Linserna fick jag från Cirkellinser, en av mina sponsorer, i recensionssyfte. ^_^ Men fast jag inte själv betalat för detta par så påverkar det inte min ärlighet. Jag kan med handen på hjärtat säga att Cirkellinser är en professionell och pålitlig hemsida. De säljer endast äkta cirkellinser som är tillverkade i Korea. De innehar även en äkthetsgaranti samt öppet köp i 30 dagar – allt för att du ska känna dig trygg och nöjd! Beställningar som gjorts före klockan 14:00 skickas samma vardag och frakttiden inom Sverige ligger på 1-2 dagar och kostar endast 19 kr. Jag kan rekommendera deras onlinebutik till alla som är intresserade av att prova på att använda färgade kontaktlinser!
 
Min kod "SHIRO" ger dig dessutom 10% rabattdin beställning hos dem, glöm inte det!



Thanks for reading!
A huge thank you to CircleLensesEurope and Cirkellinser for making this review possible!

~ Shiro Samurai out.

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